


Annabelle Lee

by 12snails



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Death, F/M, Inspired by Poetry, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 17:15:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18392807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/12snails/pseuds/12snails
Summary: Some background on what happened to Dutch's Annabelle, inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee."





	Annabelle Lee

It was many and many a year ago,

   In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

   By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

   Than to love and be loved by me.

 

When Dutch thought of Annabelle, the memory of her left an ache in his heart that he was positive no one else had ever felt; at least that’s what the man’s vanity had told him. He found himself not only haunted by her beauty, smile, and laughter, but by the memory of what took her away from him.

 

 _I_ was a child and _she_ was a child,

   In this kingdom by the sea:

But we loved with a love that was more than love—

   I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

   Coveted her and me.

 

She was 16 years younger than Dutch and enamored with all the pretty words he said to her. He would read her Browning and Wordsworth and Whitman and _Poe_. Then she would tell Dutch how intelligent and lovely he was, but to Annabelle, everything had been lovely. It was one of the reasons Dutch had fell for her and kept the girl around. He needed to hear that sort of thing it seemed.

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,

   In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

   My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

   And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

   In this kingdom by the sea.

 

Sweet Annabelle in exchange for an _O’Driscoll_ life? It was completely unfair. By the time anyone noticed her missing the O’Driscoll men had two hours on the Van der Linde gang. 

 _Colm couldn’t stand to see me happy_ , Dutch repeated over and over in his head. Dutch, with Arthur at his side, followed a deer path on horseback. There was fresh tracks leading away from where she must have been taken, but as they gained ground, they began to see bits of blood, and Arthur began to lose hope as Dutch spurred his horse to go faster.

 

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

   Went envying her and me—

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,

   In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 

“No, no, no, no,” Dutch said as he slid from his horse to where she lay. Arthur watched in silent shock as Dutch cradled the girl’s broken head. Her mouth and nose wet with blood and eyes staring into the sky, devoid of life; her hair caked with so much blood that Arthur had forgotten the true color of it. Years from now, he’d swear her hair had just been crimson the whole time he’d known her. 

“My darling,” Dutch pulled Annabelle closer to his chest. Arthur was silent still; he could not help but wonder if Eliza had looked so broken.

 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

   Of those who were older than we—

   Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in heaven above,

   Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

 

Hosea had been the only other person Dutch permitted to tend to Annabelle’s body and help bury her. It was a sunny spot amongst in the middle of a forest and Hosea laid cypress branches over the dirt that covered her before they said some words.

 

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

   In her sepulchre there by the sea,

   In her tomb by the sounding sea.


End file.
